The Royal Military Academy's Impostor Owns a Dungeon [BL] Chapter 1308: A Little Experiment

Making use of their abilities?

Yep.

Take Theo Belgrave, for example.

Of all the things the Pharmacy cadet had expected to do during CREX, analyzing liquid compositions, isolating specific components, and figuring out how to turn them into something useful had certainly been within the realm of possibility.

After all, that was at least vaguely related to his actual field of study, not to mention one of the main uses of his purposely hidden bloodline ability.

What Theo expected was for all that work and knowledge to somehow culminate in helping Luca create something that could only be described as...

LME bombs.

"..."

Uh-huh.

Instead of using his Pharmacy training primarily to treat injured members of their battalion, Theo Belgrave had somehow been tasked with helping manufacture what Luca believed could become their gateway to successfully clearing the entire exercise!

It might sound like the last-ditch move of the desperate, but really, the golden-eyed Commander wasn’t saying that because he’d given up hope for their group which was the thinking of his members who still couldn’t help but believe they were such dead weight to the members of DG.

He was actually saying that after conducting an experiment that finally had everyone understanding just what kind of planet Caldris Minor-7 was.

Outside the mouth of the cavern, Silver Rain was already pouring down in relentless torrents, drenching the barren rock formations surrounding their newly discovered hideout.

Inside, safely sheltered from the downpour, the members of Battalion 10 had little choice but to wait for the storm to pass.

At least, that was what everyone assumed they would be doing.

Until their Battalion Commander suddenly started rummaging through his new stockpile and announced that he wanted to perform an experiment.

"...?"

Using several of his spiritual tendrils, Luca carefully pushed two torn mecha legs beyond the shelter of the cavern and directly into the Silver Rain.

"One of them is the control. It’s just the leg I tore off one of the enemy mechas earlier," Luca explained, his voice echoing softly through the cavern as he monitored both pieces. "The other one is also scavenged from our dedicated opponents, but I re-coated it with our anti-LME solution first. Since it was ripped away from the main chassis, there were bound to be exposed areas and internal connections that weren’t originally coated."

"..."

The cadets gathered around the cavern entrance stared at the sacrificial mecha legs their Commander had stolen and then promptly sacrificed for science.

Several exchanged silent glances.

How long were they supposed to watch this?

Hours?

Until the rain stopped?

But nobody wanted to interrupt Luca when he looked this focused, so they simply settled in to wait. There wasn’t much else to do anyway, especially for those who’d already finished unpacking their meager belongings.

Which was why, barely thirty minutes later, everyone was surprised when Luca suddenly straightened.

"Thirty minutes?" Theo asked, voicing the exact disbelief of nearly every curious cadet gathered around him.

"Yeah." Luca frowned slightly. "Unfortunately, I don’t think the exposure needs to be that long before the effects start showing."

With a flick of his wrist, his spiritual tendrils swept through the downpour and hauled both mecha legs back into the cavern.

He carefully lowered them onto the dry ground.

"Come look," Luca said, his golden eyes gleaming with quiet intensity now that D-29 had confirmed his hypothesis. "This is why we can’t forget to coat every exposed part of our equipment."

That certainly got everyone’s attention.

The cadets crowded closer as Luca took two heavy metal hammers and wrapped them securely in spiritual tendrils.

Then, after positioning both above the damaged areas of the mecha legs, he brought them down at exactly the same time.

"!"

Gasps immediately rippled through the cavern.

Because while the re-coated leg remained relatively intact beneath the impact, the untreated one didn’t simply dent.

It

The metal surrounding the torn section fractured violently, pieces breaking away like brittle shells before scattering across the ground.

"Oh, what the hell?!" one cadet blurted out, staring at the ruined alloy in horror. "In just thirty minutes?!"

"It’s not only the exposed section we need to worry about," Luca explained, pointing toward the fractured edges with one glowing tendril. "Liquid Metal Embrittlement isn’t the same as ordinary corrosion. Once the liquid penetrates through a damaged area and reaches vulnerable grain boundaries, the surrounding metal can start losing its mechanical strength even if the rest of the surface still looks protected."

He glanced around at the increasingly pale faces surrounding him.

"So if the protective coating gets scratched or compromised during battle, even a relatively small opening could eventually weaken a much larger section."

"..."

Jax’s expression went completely slack.

Getting scratched in battle was

Especially for the kind of heavy frontline mecha he usually preferred!

Did that mean one unfortunate gash in the wrong place could eventually turn his perfectly good mecha into something that shattered under enough stress?!

"Actually, this is already on the slower side," Luca added thoughtfully.

Theo’s head snapped toward him.

"What?! How could that possibly be "

Several nearby cadets immediately murmured their agreement.

"Well, most of our manual mechas and equipment are made from complex alloys," Luca explained, looking remarkably innocent for someone currently terrifying an entire battalion. "Silver Rain is basically a mixture of different liquid metals and other elements. Even if one component is particularly aggressive toward one metal in an alloy, the overall structure isn’t necessarily going to fail instantly."

He crouched beside the fractured leg, examining the damaged section.

"But if we were dealing with a more compatible pairing, the effect could be much more aggressive. Something like gallium against certain aluminum alloys, for example."

"..."

"And with mechas, even small fissures or weakened load-bearing sections could become a serious problem once they’re put under combat stress."

Theo stared at him.

Then at the crumbled mecha leg.

Then back at Luca.

For some reason, he suddenly found himself thinking about Ollie.

If the blonde mechanic were here right now, he’d probably be screeching at the top of his lungs about how utterly insane it was that the Academy had sent them to a planet where could eventually compromise their mechas.

At this rate, by the end of the exercise, everyone might just be swinging rocks at each other!

Because what kind of lunatic looked at weather like this and decided it would make an excellent training environment?!

Safe to say, Theo probably wasn’t wrong.

The mop would’ve cursed out the Academy, the planet, whoever discovered Liquid Metal Embrittlement, and possibly several generations of their ancestors.

Sadly, the blonde wasn’t here to speak on their behalf, so Theo could only swallow his grievances lest he make everyone else panic even more.

But then he abruptly realized that his Battalion Commander had gone suspiciously quiet.

"...?"

When he looked over, Luca was staring outside as if eyeing the rain.

Then those golden eyes slowly brightened.

Theo felt an inexplicable sense of excitement. Or maybe it was dread?

He wasn’t quite sure, but whatever it was, it definitely had him restlessly shifting his weight from one foot to the other.

Luca turned around with a cheerful expression.

"What do you guys think about collecting the rainwater?"

"...Huh?"

The entire cavern went quiet.

"I mean..." Luca blinked artlessly. "If we can figure out which components in the Silver Rain are most effective against the metals our opponents are using, wouldn’t that make things much easier?"

Nobody answered.

Luca’s smile grew just a little sweeter.

"We wouldn’t even have to destroy their mechas ourselves."

"..."

"If we can damage the protective coating enough to expose the metal underneath, then wouldn’t we just need to douse the vulnerable areas with the right liquid at a high enough concentration and let it do the rest?"

"..."

Silence.

Absolute, horrified silence.

Hundreds of cadets stared at their smiling Battalion Commander, collectively wondering what kind of diabolical, unhinged brain they had somehow agreed to follow into battle.

Meanwhile, Luca continued looking perfectly pleased with his idea.

After all...

Rainwater was free!